The interview experience at IIT-B SJMSOM was one of its kind. What made it so, was not just the questions that were asked but also the entire experience of it from the waiting period, doc verification till the interview was completed.
Starting with a brief about myself, I am Dibyendu Patra and I'm a ‘20 Civil Engineering graduate from Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College. I had scored 99.85%ile in CAT'20 and 99.9%ile in XAT. I have decided to join SJMSOM, IIT Bombay and here is my interview experience-
Hi, I’m Shikhar Tandon. I am from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. I completed my B.tech In Computer Science Engineering from Jaypee Institute Of Information Technology, Noida. I also have a 24 months work experience with FICO and SAP Labs (combined).
We all get a little nervous during interviews. But my experience at SJMSOM IIT Bombay was so unique and interesting that I did not quite get the time to be anxious!
It was the 3rd of March 2021. My interview was scheduled for 3:00 o clock. IIT Bombay has always been the hub of innovation and SJMSOM being part of IIT Bombay is no different. The interview experience was innovative. In the pandemic times, they wanted to give the same experience to the students as an offline interview. So for this, they used software that functions like a 90s RPG game. We all were given pixelated avatars to choose from and I chose a king avatar. The virtual platform was in the same fashion as an offline interview centre. Even the SJMSOM ADCOM members had their own avatars and if you moved in closer you can initiate a chat with them. You can also chat with other interviewees or just snoop into a talk between two members. There were separate virtual rooms for document verification and interviews. For me first were the interview and then the document verification.
My SJMSOM-interview was scheduled on 4th March 2021. I had scored a not-so-useful percentile of 97.84 in CAT 2020 and the interview call from SJMSOM was frankly a surprise to me. I was not riding on high hopes of converting SJMSOM as its MBA-program gives considerable weight to an applicant’s work experience and CAT score in the final selection process. The average work experience of a SOMite is 27 months and I had no fulltime work experience. For an applicant who receives an interview call, the conversion was 40% dependent on his/her interview performance, another 40% on CAT score (grr…) and the rest on profile.
The interview was scheduled for 7th March 2021, it was held via the “Gather” platform. The whole virtual experience was quite exciting and unique. All the interviewees in the same slot gathered together in the main auditorium and then we were briefed about the panel, the interview process by a member of the academic support committee. The interaction was informative and helped ease out some of the tension and confusion. After a short, while my interview was going to start so I left the auditorium and entered the concerned interview room where a link for the zoom call was provided. I greeted the panel and the interview began. The interviewers structured the questions so as to test my knowledge about my B. Tech Project and related concepts in computer science i.e, Machine Learning. The questions were quite intriguing and thoroughly tested my domain knowledge. I face a few connectivity problems while the interview was going on but it didn’t cause too much trouble. The panel was encouraging and supportive. After the interview, I went for the document verification and with this, the interview process ended. Overall it was a great experience.
After appearing for several interviews this season, I can undoubtedly say that SJMSOM had the best online interview setup of all. The typical format of an online personal interview this season had us all waiting in front of the screen, aimlessly staring at the “Please wait, the panelists will let you in soon” message that appeared over the white background. SJMSOM did things differently, however. The admissions team made use of an application called 'Gather'. Think of it as a 2-dimensional waiting lobby with fun characters that could move around and travel from one room to the next. This change was a welcome one and added enormous flavour to the otherwise mundane process.
The interview experience at IIT-B SJMSOM was one of its kind. What made it so, was not just the questions that were asked but also the entire experience of it from the waiting period, doc verification till the interview was completed.
Starting with a brief about myself, I am Dibyendu Patra and I'm a ‘20 Civil Engineering graduate from Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College. I had scored 99.85%ile in CAT'20 and 99.9%ile in XAT. I have decided to join SJMSOM, IIT Bombay and here is my interview experience-
Hi, I’m Shikhar Tandon. I am from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. I completed my B.tech In Computer Science Engineering from Jaypee Institute Of Information Technology, Noida. I also have a 24 months work experience with FICO and SAP Labs (combined).
We all get a little nervous during interviews. But my experience at SJMSOM IIT Bombay was so unique and interesting that I did not quite get the time to be anxious!
It was the 3rd of March 2021. My interview was scheduled for 3:00 o clock. IIT Bombay has always been the hub of innovation and SJMSOM being part of IIT Bombay is no different. The interview experience was innovative. In the pandemic times, they wanted to give the same experience to the students as an offline interview. So for this, they used software that functions like a 90s RPG game. We all were given pixelated avatars to choose from and I chose a king avatar. The virtual platform was in the same fashion as an offline interview centre. Even the SJMSOM ADCOM members had their own avatars and if you moved in closer you can initiate a chat with them. You can also chat with other interviewees or just snoop into a talk between two members. There were separate virtual rooms for document verification and interviews. For me first were the interview and then the document verification.
My SJMSOM-interview was scheduled on 4th March 2021. I had scored a not-so-useful percentile of 97.84 in CAT 2020 and the interview call from SJMSOM was frankly a surprise to me. I was not riding on high hopes of converting SJMSOM as its MBA-program gives considerable weight to an applicant’s work experience and CAT score in the final selection process. The average work experience of a SOMite is 27 months and I had no fulltime work experience. For an applicant who receives an interview call, the conversion was 40% dependent on his/her interview performance, another 40% on CAT score (grr…) and the rest on profile.
The interview was scheduled for 7th March 2021, it was held via the “Gather” platform. The whole virtual experience was quite exciting and unique. All the interviewees in the same slot gathered together in the main auditorium and then we were briefed about the panel, the interview process by a member of the academic support committee. The interaction was informative and helped ease out some of the tension and confusion. After a short, while my interview was going to start so I left the auditorium and entered the concerned interview room where a link for the zoom call was provided. I greeted the panel and the interview began. The interviewers structured the questions so as to test my knowledge about my B. Tech Project and related concepts in computer science i.e, Machine Learning. The questions were quite intriguing and thoroughly tested my domain knowledge. I face a few connectivity problems while the interview was going on but it didn’t cause too much trouble. The panel was encouraging and supportive. After the interview, I went for the document verification and with this, the interview process ended. Overall it was a great experience.
After appearing for several interviews this season, I can undoubtedly say that SJMSOM had the best online interview setup of all. The typical format of an online personal interview this season had us all waiting in front of the screen, aimlessly staring at the “Please wait, the panelists will let you in soon” message that appeared over the white background. SJMSOM did things differently, however. The admissions team made use of an application called 'Gather'. Think of it as a 2-dimensional waiting lobby with fun characters that could move around and travel from one room to the next. This change was a welcome one and added enormous flavour to the otherwise mundane process.
